Greater New Orleans Drug Demand Reduction Coalition

Areas of Focus

Prevention

We work continuously to encourage community and public officials to make drug abuse a top priority, to ensure effective drug prevention programs are present in schools, and to implement ongoing awareness campaigns to inform communities about the dangers and social costs of drug abuse

Treatment

Enforcement

We work to develop a standard set of statistics regarding substance abuse and mental health in the criminal justice system as well as to develop an epidemiological work group to review trends and public health indicators at the local-community level

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About GNODDRC

Working to Build a Healthier, Safer, Drug-Free NOLA

GNODDRC works to prevent substance abuse through prevention, treatment and law enforcement for a safe and healthy community from early childhood through adulthood.. The coalition supports evidence based programs, policies and practices to reduce the demand for drugs through education, data collection, information sharing, advocacy, capacity building and community collaboration. We achieve our mission through a balanced approach emphasizing 4 key components of success in the community. Our Vision for the city is that New Orleans will be a safe, crime and drug-free, healthy community with a good quality of life for all of its citizens.

Data

Everything we do and every decision we make is based on the most current epidemiologic data and trends

Neighborhood & Youth

While we work at the community level, our primary concern is establishing and maintaining a healthy youth population

Membership & Outreach

A key component of our mission is to establish relationships in our communities of focus and to foster those relationships into measurable results

Sustainability & Policy

As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization we are focused on establishing sustainability within the communities we work and also ensuring that state and local policy support the creation of safer, healthier, drug-free communities

Quotes from Community Leaders

“Thanks to the Greater New Orleans Drug Demand Reduction Coalition for the first time our city leaders public health experts and community activists are working together to develop and implement a comprehensive data driven strategy to reduce the demand for drugs and to improve all of the areas that are negatively impacted by the problem of drugs.”

“I am in full support of the Greater New Orleans Drug Demand Reduction Coalition to reduce the demand for drugs in New Orleans, which has long been plagued by the problems related to drugs and substance abuse.”

“The Coalition has been an important partner to the City’s violence and behavioral health initiative by utilizing concrete data assembling methods to identify risk and protective factors for youth drug use.”

“I have been involved in some form or fashion with efforts to reduce the demand for drugs in this community for well over 30 years. DDRC in its short existence has brought us to a place this community has never been.“

“As a retired lieutenant colonel from state police, and now three years as a US Marshal, I can’t adequately express how important the NO Drug Control Strategy is to our community. This is the very first time in my thirty-eight years of law enforcement that people from diverse backgrounds and occupations are actually talking and working to come up with long term solutions to problems that have plagued our community for many years.”

“In my nearly 30 years as a federal processor, I have not previously seen anything like the demand reduction coalition or the New Orleans drug control strategy in terms its ability to bring together prevention, treatment enforcement – along with judicial process – to help solve or at least significantly ameliorate the drug problem in our city.”

“We recognize that the work of the Coalition has the ability to reduce the impact of substance abuse on our community and its citizens – specifically including a reduction in crime and domestic violence.”

“The GNO Drug Demand Reduction Coalition has brought together a cohesive network of stakeholders in the reduction and prevention of narcotics abuse from both enforcement, prevention and the judicial arena, who have for the first time in my experience, for such a diverse group the opportunity to address all aspects of the problems encountered by illegal drugs and narcotics abuse. “

“This is a one of a kind endeavor to tackle a resistant and persistent problem in our New Orleans region; an effort that has been sustained through committed leadership and direction of experienced and committed professionals. DDRC is the first cooperative initiative between prevention, treatment, enforcement and criminal justice.”

The Strengthening Families Program for Youth 10-14 (SFP10-14), an evidence-based intervention that reduces teen substance use, also reduced participants’ friends’ substance use. Two factors that accounted for the nonparticipants’ reductions were less time spent by nonparticipants with their participating friends without adult supervision and improvements in nonparticipants’ attitudes toward substance use. The findings suggest that Read more about Prevention Program Reduces Substance Use By Participants' Friends[…]

Within the 2 weeks prior to responding to a nationwide survey, 28 percent of high school seniors were in a vehicle whose driver had been using marijuana or another illicit drug, or had drunk 5 or more alcoholic drinks. Source: Nida Alcohol Publications